John D. Goodson

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act: Promise and Peril for Primary Care

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) of 2010 brings both promise and peril for primary care. This Act has the potential to reestablish primary care as the foundation of U.S. health care delivery. The legislation authorizes specific programs to stabilize and expand the primary care physician workforce, provides an immediate 10% increase in primary care physician payment, creates an opportunity to correct the skewed resource-based relative value scale, and supports innovation in primary care practice. Nevertheless, the peril is that the PPACA initiatives may not alter the current trend toward an increasingly specialized physician workforce. To realize the potential for the PPACA to achieve a more equitable balance between generalist and specialist physicians, all primary care advocates must actively engage in the long rebuilding process.

Diagnosis of lymphomatous leptomeningitis by cerebrospinal fluid lymphocyte cell surface markers.

We present a patient with metastatic lymphomatous leptomeningitis in whom the diagnosis was made on the basis of cerebrospinal fluid lymphocyte surface markers and later confirmed by cerebrospinal fluid cytology. The diagnosis of metastatic leptomeningitis can be elusive, and the differential includes a wide variety of infectious and noninfectious processes. We propose that lymphocyte surface marker studies can be a useful technique in expediting the evaluation of certain patients with lymphoma who have evidence of central nervous sytem involvement.

The Future of Capitation: The Physician Role in Managing Change in Practice

Capitation-based reimbursement significantly influences the practice of medicine. As physicians, we need to assure that payment models do not jeopardize the care we provide when we accept higher levels of personal financial risk. In this paper, we review the literature relevant to capitation, consider the interaction of financial incentives with physician and medical risk, and conclude that primary care physicians need to work to assure that capitated systems incorporate checks and balances that protect both patients and providers. We offer the following proposals for individuals and groups considering capitated contracts: (1) reimbursement for primary care physicians should recognize both individual patient encounters and the administrative work of patient care management; (2) reimbursement for subspecialists should recognize both access to subspecialty knowledge and expertise as well as patient care encounters, but in some situations, subspecialists may provide the majority of care to individual patients and will be reimbursed as primary care providers; (3) groups of physicians should accept financial risk for patient care only if they have the tools and resources to manage the care; (4) physicians sharing risk for patient care should meet regularly to discuss care and resource management; and (5) physicians must disclose the financial relationships they have with health plans and medical care organizations, and engage patients and communities in discussions about resource allocation. As a payment model, capitation offers opportunities for primary care physicians to influence the future of health care by improving the management of resources at a local level.

Is upper gastrointestinal radiography necessary in the initial management of uncomplicated dyspepsia

Study objective: To compare two strategies for the evaluation and management of patients who have had acute dyspepsia for four days or more: empiric high-dose antacid therapy combined with patient reassurance (empiric care) versus therapy based on prompt upper gastrointestinal radiography (traditional care).Design: Prospective, randomized trial. The patients in the empiric care group were reassured that upper gastrointestinal radiography was not necessary and were subsequently treated with high-dose empiric antacid therapy (15–30 ml of high-potency antacid one and three hours after meals and at bedtime). The traditional care group received upper gastrointestinal radiography as part of the initial evaluation. Subsequent treatment was determined by individual physicians based on test results.Settings: Fee-for-service, hospital-based primary care practice and Veteran’s Administration medical center outpatient clinic.Patients: All patients were less than 70 years of age and without gastrointestinal bleeding, anemia, significant weight loss, or other specified symptoms of severe acid peptic disease. Fifty patients were randomized to traditional care, and 51 to empiric care. Pre-randomization clinical features were identical with the exception of sex distribution and baseline disability.Measurements and main results: After six months of follow-up, there were no significant differences in symptom scores, disability, satisfaction, and quality of life measures (as measured by the Sickness Impact Profile scores) between the two groups. Findings were unchanged when adjusted for sex, study site, alcohol consumption, and cigarette smoking. Of the radiographs obtained in the traditional care group, 13 (27%) showed duodenal ulcer disease, gastritis, or duodenitis. There were no serious complications of ulcer disease or therapy noted in either group. The average costs per patient associated with traditional care at one study site were greater,

Finding Value in Unexpected Places — Fixing the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule

286 versus

The Undervaluation of Evaluation and Management Professional Services: The Lasting Impact of Current Procedural Terminology Code Deficiencies on Physician Payment

116 (p<0.0001).Conclusions: Select patients with dyspepsia receiving a combination of reassurance and empiric antacid therapy do as well as patients whose initial management strategy includes upper gastrointestinal radiography, at a substantially lower cost.

CommentaryFeaturedThe Undervaluation of Evaluation and Management Professional Services: The Lasting Impact of Current Procedural Terminology Code Deficiencies on Physician Payment

A substantially improved, carefully managed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule could pave the way to more fundamental value-based payment reform and improve performance among physicians, who are likely to be paid according to fee schedules for the foreseeable future.

Discomfort and disability in upper respiratory tract infection

The Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) is fundamentally undermined by the following foundational errors: (1) The full range of office-based evaluation and management (E/M) activities are not captured by the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code choices, (2) it places relatively high values on procedural services, (3) there is no measure of intensity for complex outpatient E/M care, and (4) its maintenance and update have been delegated to select professional societies. Limitations imposed on the development of the RBRVS dating back to the early 1980s have not been corrected. The repertoire of codes for physician office-based E/M work must be expanded to create a new topology of choices with new outpatient code families with discrete service code levels, such as comprehensive outpatient consultation care, comprehensive outpatient primary care, and limited outpatient consultation care. Service code relative values must be based on representative samples and reliable survey data, draw from the broader literature on work intensity, and be developed with accountable and representative professional engagement.

Comparing ambulatory care practices of primary care and traditional medicine residents

The Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) is fundamentally undermined by the following foundational errors: (1) The full range of office-based evaluation and management (E/M) activities are not captured by the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) code choices, (2) it places relatively high values on procedural services, (3) there is no measure of intensity for complex outpatient E/M care, and (4) its maintenance and update have been delegated to select professional societies. Limitations imposed on the development of the RBRVS dating back to the early 1980s have not been corrected. The repertoire of codes for physician office-based E/M work must be expanded to create a new topology of choices with new outpatient code families with discrete service code levels, such as comprehensive outpatient consultation care, comprehensive outpatient primary care, and limited outpatient consultation care. Service code relative values must be based on representative samples and reliable survey data, draw from the broader literature on work intensity, and be developed with accountable and representative professional engagement.

Empiric antacids and reassurance for acute dyspepsia

Ambulatory patients with upper respiratory infection were studied to determine the relative contributions made by tissue pathology, psychologic and perceptual attributes, and demographic characteristics to reported discomfort and disability. Patients (n=115) attending a medical walk-in clinic completed self-report questionnaires to assess somatization, anxiety, depression, hostility, amplification, discomfort, disability, and demographic characteristics. Clinicians rated the extent of disease apparent on physical examination. Using stepwise multiple regression, demographic factors and physical findings explained 25% of the variance in reported discomfort. The addition of somatization scores increased the variance explained to 49%. The best model, including somatization and amplification, accounted for 54% of the variance. A model composed of demographic characteristics, physical findings, and somatization accounted for 25% of the variance in reported disability. The authors conclude that psychologic variables are important in the experience of discomfort, even after the extent of physical disease and demographic characteristics have been taken into account.